As a young guitarist growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area,
Charlie Hunter was looking for a way to stand out in the '80s. His primary influences were jazz great
Joe Pass and the fluid
Tuck Andress (of the guitar/vocal duo
Tuck & Patti), both six-string guitarists who were adept at blending bass notes into their standard guitar melodies to make themselves sound like two musicians at once. But
Hunter wanted to take it one step further and set out to find an instrument on which he could simultaneously function as both a guitarist and a bassist. For his self-titled 1993 debut CD,
Hunter played a seven-string guitar for the duality effect, locking down the bottom with drummer
Jay Lane and mixing melodically with saxophonist
David Ellis. But on his trio's 1995 sophomore release,
Bing, Bing, Bing!,
Hunter unveiled his custom-made Novax eight-string, the guitar that finally allowed him to realize his capacity. Designed by Ralph Novak, the instrument featured special frets and separate signals for its guitar and bass portions. Picking bass notes with his right thumb while fretting them with his left index finger (while at the same time fingerpicking guitar chords and single notes with his right hand's remaining four digits as he frets with his left hand's other three fingers),
Hunter achieves the real sound of two-for-one.
Hunter played with the side group T.J. Kirk in the mid-'90s, a band that derived their name from the cover material they exclusively played:
Thelonious Monk,
James Brown, and
Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Initially wanting to call themselves James T. Kirk before being threatened by the Star Trek TV and film series, T.J. Kirk released a self-titled 1995 debut and the 1996 follow-up, If Four Was One, before disbanding.
Hunter took drummer
Scott Amendola with him for his next project, an ambitious instrumental remake of
Bob Marley's
Natty Dread album in its entirety. Also featuring saxophonists
Kenny Brooks and
Calder Spanier, the 1997 release beat the odds by becoming what is arguably
Hunter's best album. After
Spanier died from injuries sustained from being hit by a car,
Hunter moved east to New York, taking
Amendola with him. Teaming with vibraphonist
Stefon Harris and percussionist
John Santos, Charlie Hunter & Pound for Pound's 1998 CD
Return of the Candyman is dedicated to
Spanier. A departure from
Natty Dread, mainly due to the work of
Harris, the disc featured a vibes-heavy cover of Steve Miller's "Fly Like an Eagle."
Hunter's modus operandi had now become shifting personnel changes, and in between tours he recorded a 1999 duo CD with drummer/percussionist
Leon Parker and a self-titled 2000 CD that featured
Parker and an otherwise ensemble cast.
Hunter also contributed greatly to the 2000 comeback CD by drummer
Mike Clark,
Actual Proof.
Hunter concluded his run at Blue Note with 2001's
Songs from the Analog Playground, which saw him collaborating with vocalists for the first time, ranging from labelmates
Norah Jones and
Kurt Elling to
Mos Def. The year 2003 found
Hunter with a new label (Ropeadope) and two new bands, the Charlie Hunter Quintet on
Right Now Move and the beginning of Groundtruther, a partnership with percussionist/composer
Bobby Previte -- released Come in Red Dog, This Is Tango Leader before adopting the Groundtruther moniker. For 2003's
Friends Seen and Unseen, it was back to the Charlie Hunter Trio, with drummer Derrek Phillips and saxman
John Ellis, both members of the Quintet. By now, Groundtruther had taken on a life of its own, with
Hunter and
Previte joined by a rotating third member. Latitude was first in 2004 with saxophonist
Greg Osby, followed by Longitude with
DJ Logic in 2005.
In 2006, the Charlie Hunter Trio resurfaced with Copperopolis and almost immediately announced that they were disbanding as
Ellis wanted to further pursue a solo career.
Hunter quickly regrouped, recruiting
Erik Deutsch on keys and Simon Lott on drums. They released
Mistico in the summer of 2007,
Hunter's one and only album for Fantasy.
He began self-releasing his music in 2008 with
Baboon Strength by his trio, and followed it in 2010 with
Gentlemen, I Neglected to Inform You You Will Not Be Getting Paid, featuring a band that swapped keyboards for a three-piece horn section. Ever restless,
Hunter collaborated on a series of duet albums over the next few years. The first two, in 2012 and 2013, were reunions with drummer
Amendola and titled, respectively,
Not Getting Behind Is the New Getting Ahead and Pucker. The sounds the pair engaged ranged from soul-jazz to blues and funk. On 2014's Dionne Dionne, he worked with former
Arrested Development guitarist
Dionne Farris on a series of cover songs associated with
Dionne Warwick.
Hunter reassembled his Trio in 2015 with drummer
Previte and trombonist
Curtis Fowlkes (who was a member of
Right Now Move). They issued a preview track, "Those People," in May. The album
Let the Bells Ring On followed a month later. In 2016, he delivered the quartet album
Everybody Has a Plan Until They Get Punched in the Mouth, featuring
Previte,
Fowlkes, and cornetist
Kirk Knuffke. ~ Bill Meredith & Sean Westergaard